Imagine a future where we don't have to tear up the Earth to get the resources we need. What if we could mine asteroids instead? Sounds like science fiction, right? But a company called TransAstra is working on a way to do just that, using a giant inflatable bag. And that's not all – this same technology could even clean up the growing problem of space junk! But here's where it gets controversial... is asteroid mining truly a sustainable solution, or just a new frontier for exploitation?
Asteroids are packed with valuable metals, both the precious kind like gold and platinum, and the common kind like iron and nickel. Earth-based mining is facing some serious challenges: dwindling supplies and devastating environmental consequences. Some startups believe that tapping into the resources of asteroids could offer a sustainable alternative. Think of it – an almost limitless supply of materials floating in space, just waiting to be harvested.
The race is on to unlock this cosmic treasure chest. TransAstra, based in California, has developed a device called the Capture Bag. It’s an inflatable bag designed to catch everything from small rocks to boulders the size of houses. But the Capture Bag isn't just for mining. It could also be a key tool in cleaning up the ever-increasing amount of human-made space junk orbiting our planet – a problem that's causing growing concern among governments and scientists. The sheer volume of debris poses a collision risk to satellites and even the International Space Station.
According to Joel Sercel, an aerospace engineer who taught at Caltech and founded TransAstra, asteroid mining is a complex undertaking. "To solve the asteroid mining problem, you actually have to solve four other problems: detect, capture, move, and process." In simple terms, you need to find the right asteroid, grab it, move it to a safe location, and then extract the valuable materials. And this is the part most people miss... each of these steps presents its own unique engineering challenges.
TransAstra claims to have solutions for each of these challenges. "We have tech in all those areas," Sercel says. "At last count, we have about 21 patents, and we get a new patent issued about every month." That's a lot of innovation!
In early October, TransAstra conducted a preliminary test of the Capture Bag aboard the International Space Station, although without actually capturing anything. Funded by private investors and NASA, they're now working on a much larger, more capable version of the device.
Sercel knows where to look for potentially valuable asteroids, focusing on those with Earth-like orbits. "They drift very slowly by the Earth, at a distance of just a few billion kilometers," he explains. These asteroids are easier to reach than those in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
"We already know where hundreds of these objects are, and we’re planning on going and getting the first one in 2028 – that, we think, will foment a true industrial revolution in space." A bold claim! But is it realistic?
So far, TransAstra has raised approximately $12 million from private venture capital and about $15 million from contracts and grants, including funding from NASA and the US Space Force. This shows that both the private and public sectors see potential in their technology.
It's worth noting that previous attempts at asteroid mining haven't been successful. Two startups in the field, Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries, went out of business before achieving any significant results. Collecting samples from asteroids is incredibly difficult and expensive. To date, only three missions have successfully brought back asteroid samples, all conducted by government agencies from the US and Japan, at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars each.
To find promising asteroids, TransAstra has deployed about a dozen telescopes in Arizona, California, and Australia, forming a network to search for suitable targets. A fourth location is planned for Spain.
The company calls these telescopes Sutter, after Sutter's Mill in California, where gold was discovered, sparking the gold rush. "That’s where they discovered gold in California that led to the gold rush," Sercel explained. "And we think that the prospecting of asteroids with telescopes will lead to the gold rush to space."
Once an asteroid is identified, TransAstra plans to use its Capture Bag to grab it. The bag, constructed from aerospace-grade materials like Kevlar and aluminum, is leak-proof and designed to be mounted on a carrier vehicle. The vehicle releases the bag near the target asteroid, and the bag inflates to engulf the object.
Capture Bags come in six sizes, ranging from micro to super jumbo. "The micro ones could fit in a coffee cup," Sercel says. "They can capture a small piece of debris, the size of a watermelon."
The one-meter-diameter bag was tested on the ISS. "We went from a sketch on a whiteboard to delivered hardware for the flight demonstration in seven months – in the space business, that’s unheard of," said Sercel. "It launched on a Falcon Nine rocket, was brought into the space station by astronauts, and put on what I would consider the outside of the space station, which is the inside of the airlock. Then … it was tested in microgravity and vacuum, and it worked." A significant achievement!
The largest Capture Bag, still in the design phase, would be capable of capturing a 10,000-ton asteroid, as big as a small building.
TransAstra is currently developing a 10-meter version of the bag, funded in part by a $5 million grant from NASA. Sercel anticipates the engineering will be completed in just over a year, making it ready for a space flight. However, before targeting valuable asteroids, they plan to test the bag on less glamorous space debris, which Sercel calls "a risk mitigator for the full asteroid mining mission."
"That 10-meter capture bag will be big enough to find satellites that are in graveyard orbits but might be causing navigational issues. It will capture them and move them to a safer place. That’s an important mission," Sercel said. "But it’s also big enough to go out and get asteroids, so we are currently working with industrial partners on a plan to get an asteroid that might be 100 tons."
Sercel believes that bringing mined materials back to Earth isn't economically viable. Instead, he envisions processing the materials in space to create the hardware needed for further space exploration and development. This could revolutionize how we build and maintain space infrastructure.
Both space junk removal and asteroid capture are attracting considerable interest and investment. Earlier this year, Astroforge launched Odin, a probe designed to assess an asteroid for mining potential. Although Astroforge lost contact with Odin after launch, it was the first ever private mission to an asteroid and a sign of things to come.
Space junk capture tests have been successfully conducted for years, but a full-scale solution has yet to be deployed. Various technologies are being explored, from robotic arms to magnets and even harpoons. Each approach has its own advantages and disadvantages.
Sercel argues that the Capture Bag's simplicity and robustness give it an edge over more complex methods. "The same capture bag can be used to capture objects of different shapes, as long as the bag is big enough," he said. He acknowledges the initial cost will be in the millions of dollars, but he anticipates that cost will decrease significantly with scale, making it more competitive than robotic systems.
Eleonora Botta, an associate professor at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering of the University at Buffalo, who’s not involved with TransAstra, said the capture bag’s key feature is that it can secure objects of varying shapes, sizes, and rotational dynamics. “This versatility is valuable for asteroid capture and even more so for managing space debris,” she added. “One of the major engineering challenges lies in deploying large, highly flexible structures in the vacuum and microgravity conditions of space; this aspect will be critical as the system is scaled up from its ISS-based experimental version. Encouragingly, TransAstra has recently secured funding to advance this scaling effort in partnership with NASA.”
John Crassidis — a professor of mechanical engineering also at the University at Buffalo, who works with NASA, the US Air Force and other agencies to monitor space debris, and is not involved with TransAstra — said the company has a very innovative approach for asteroid mining, starting with the Sutter telescope used to find and track small asteroids in space. “If it works, then it’ll really open the doors for asteroid mining, because there are many small ones out there that we can’t see right now,” Crassidis said. “The big question is: can they find enough asteroids to make it cost feasible? We’ll find out — 2028 is pretty ambitious in my opinion, but I hope they make it.”
So, what do you think? Is TransAstra's Capture Bag a game-changer for asteroid mining and space junk removal, or is it just another ambitious idea that will struggle to overcome the immense challenges of space? Could asteroid mining truly be the key to a sustainable future, or will it create new environmental problems? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
